More on HuffPo and journalism

Feb 9, 2011, 09:41 pm

Via Nate Silver, I see an insightful piece by Tom McGeveran at Capital New York on the Huffington Post-AOL merger. I agree with most of his points.

In brief summary, he argues that what HuffPo does isn’t news, it’s content; that HuffPo is betting on a high-volume, low-quality approach (and that AOL is making the same bet, making it such a good marriage, as I argued earlier); and that in the long run quality, not quantity, will win out as the model for journalism. McGeveran cites Gawker’s much-maligned redesign as an example of high-quality journalism (even if, as a gossip blog, it’s not always high-CLASS journalism).

As Gawker founder Nick Denton argued in his explanation of the redesign, Gawker Media affiliates aren’t trying to maximize eyeballs at any cost. They want to work with advertisers to deliver bang for the buck, with high-quality scoops to draw traffic mixed with low-quality aggregator material. I’m certainly more intrigued by the Gawker model than the HuffPo model.